The Brookhaven leader., 1887-11-24

II Know that my ltedeemer llveth, than
when covered all over with the pus:ules
of elCphantasis he sat in the ashes scratch
ing the scabs Off with a broken piece of
pottery; or that Alexander Cruden, the
concordist, was any better man when he
compiled the book that has helped 10, 600
students of the Bible, than when under
the power of physical disorder he was
handcuffed and strait waistcoatcd in
Bethnal Green Insane asylum.
"Oh," says some Christian man, mo
one ought to allow physical disorder to
depress his soul. lie ought to live so
near to God as to be always in the sun
shine. Yes, that is good advice; but
warrant that you, the man who gives the
advice, have sound liver. Thank God
every day for healthful hepatic condition,
for, just as certainly as you lose it, you
will sometimes, like David, and like Jcr-
emiah, and like Cowper, and like Alex
ander Cruden, and like 10000 other in
valids, be playing a dead march on
the same organ with which now you
play q toccata. My object at this
point is not only to emolliate the criti-
cisms of the well against those in poor
health but to show Christian people who
are atrabilarious what is the matter with
them. Do not charge against the heart
the crimes of another portion of your or
ganism. Do not conclude that because
the path of heaven is not arbOred with as
fine a foliage, or the banks beautifully
showed under with exquisite chrysanthe-
NUNS as once, that therefore you are on
the wrong road. The road Will bring
you out at the same gate whether you
walk with the stride of an athlete or
come up on crutchcs. Thousands of
Christians. morbid about their expert
ences, and morbid about their business,
and morbid ;.bout the present, and NOR
bid about the future, need the sermon l
am now preaching.
Another practical use of this subject is
for the young. The theory is abroad that
they must first SOW their wild oats, and
afterward Michigan wheat. Let me break
the delusion. Wild oats are generally
sown in the liver, and they can never be
pulled up. They so preoccupy that organ
that there is no room for the implantation
of a righteous crop. You see aged men
about us at so erect. agile, splendid, grand
old men. How much wild oats did they
SOW between 18 years and so? None.
absolutely none. God does not very often
honor with old age those who have in
early life sacrificed swine on the altar of
the bodily temple. Remember. o young
man, that while In after life. and after
years of dissipation, you may perhaps
have your heart changed, religion does
not change the liver. Trembling and
staggering along these streets today are
men, all bent and decayed and prema-
turely old, for the reason that they are
paying for liens they put upon their
physical estate before they We're 80. By
early dissipation they put on their body
first mortgage, and "a second mortgage,
and third mortgage, to the devil, and
these mortgages are now being foreclosed,
and all that remains of their earthly
estate the undertaken will soon put out of
sight. Many years ago, in fulillnlent of
my text. dart struck through their liver,
and it is there vet. God forgiveS. but
outraged physical law never, never, never.
That has Sinai, but no Calvary. Solo
man in my text knew what he was talk
ing about. He had in carly life been a
profigate, and he rises up on his throne
of worldly splendor to shrek out warn
ing to all the centuries. David, bad in
early life, but good III later life, cries out
with an agony Of earnestness: ''Remem-
Der not the sins of my youth. "
Stephen y. Douglas gave the name Of
''squatter sovereignty" to those who went
out west and took possession of lands and
held them by right of preoccupation. Let
,,f 10
you get to 25 years of age, and they will
in all probability keep possession of it by
an internal squatter sovereignty. II
promise to pay at the bank $500 six
month from date" says the promissorv
note. Il promise to pay my life thirty
years from date at the bank of the
grave" says every infraction of the laws
OF your physical being.
What? Will mans body never COM
pletely recover from early dissipation in
this world? Never. How about the
world to come? Perhaps God will fix it
up in the resurrection body so that it will
not have to go limping through all eter,
nifty; but get the liver thoroughly dam
aged and it will stay damaged. Physi
clans call it cancer of the liver, or
hardening of the liver, or cirrhosis of the
liver, or inflammation of the liver, but
Solomon puts all these pangs into one
figure and says: It'll the dart strike
through his liver.
uesiod seemed to have some hint H
this when he represented Prometheus for
his crimes fastened to pillar and an
eagle feeding on his liver, which was re-
newed again each night, so that the
devouring went on until finally Hercules
slew the eagle and rescued PrOmetheus.
And a dissipated early life assures a
ferocity pecking away and clawing away
year in and year out, and Death is the
only Hercules who can break the power
of its beak or unclench its claw. So also
Virgil and Homer wrote fables about
vultures preying upon the liver, but
there are those here today with whom it
is no fable, but terrific reality.
That young man smoking cigarettes
and smoking cigars has no idea that he
is getting for himself smoked liver. That
young man has no idea that he has by
early dissipation SO depleted his energies
that he will go into the battle only half
armed. Napoleon lost Waterloo days
before it was fought. Had he attacked
the English army before it was re-enforced
and attacked it division by division. he
might have won the day, but he waited
until he had only 100000 men against
2O0,O 900. And here is young man who,
if he put all his forces against the regi-
ment of youthful temptations, in the
strength of God might he drive them back.
but he is allowing them to be re-enforc cd
by the whole army of midlife temptations.